David Rehnlund

The impact of size effects on the electrochemical behaviour of Cu2O-coated Cu nanopillars for advanced Li-ion microbatteries

The generation of a distribution of nanoparticles upon conversion reaction of thin Cu2O layers is demonstrated to produce a wide electrochemical potential window, as well as a distinctive capacity increase in large area three-dimensional electrodes. Cu nanopillars with a 10–15 nm Cu2O coating containing traces of nanocrystalline Fe2O3 yield capacities up to 0.265 mA h cm−2 (at 61 mA g−1), excellent cycling for more than 300 cycles and an electroactive potential window larger than 2 V, due to the size effects caused by the various Cu/Cu2O nanoparticles formed during conversion/deconversion. These 3D Li-ion battery electrodes based on electrodeposited Cu nanopillars spontaneously coated with a Cu2O layer are compatible with current densities of 16 A g−1 (i.e. 61 C rates) after aerosol-assisted infiltration with an iron acetate solution followed by low-temperature pyrolysis. The capacity of the composite material increases by 67% during 390 cycles due to the growth of the electroactive area during the electrochemical milling of Cu2O forced by its repeated conversion/de-conversion. The latter generates a distribution of nanoparticles with different sizes and redox potentials, which explains the broad potential window, as well as the significant capacity contribution from double layer charging. These 3D electrodes should be well-suited for Li-ion microbatteries and Li-ion batteries in general, since they combine high capacities per footprint area with excellent power capabilities. More importantly, such electrodes grant access to fundamental understanding of the electrochemical behaviour of these active materials providing new insights into both conversion mechanisms and nanostructured interfaces more in general.

Lithium trapping in alloy forming electrodes and current collectors for lithium based batteries

Significant capacity losses are generally seen for batteries containing high-capacity lithium alloy forming anode materials such as silicon, tin and aluminium. These losses are generally ascribed to a combination of volume expansion effects and irreversible electrolyte reduction reactions. Here, it is shown, based on e.g. elemental analyses of cycled electrodes, that the capacity losses for tin nanorod and silicon composite electrodes in fact involve diffusion controlled trapping of lithium in the electrodes. While an analogous effect is also demonstrated for copper, nickel and titanium current collectors, boron-doped diamond is shown to function as an effective lithium diffusion barrier. The present findings indicate that the durability of lithium based batteries can be improved significantly via proper electrode design or regeneration of the used electrodes.

Electrochemical elaboration of electrodes and electrolytes for 3D structured batteries

The challenges associated with the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) electrode and electrolyte materials for Li-ion batteries are discussed. The basic issues for achieving a solid 3D cell foundation, which can simultaneously offer sufficient electronic conductivity to enable stable cycling, as well as enough compatibility with the incorporation of complementary components, have been addressed. Various electrochemical strategies for elaborating such systems are discussed and critically examined. Several current collector systems are presented including electrochemically prepared Cu and Al nanorods and commercial aperiodic carbon structures. Further electrochemical coating approaches then provide a direct method for the deposition of thin layers of active materials successfully demonstrated here as coatings on both 3D metal structures and commercially available 3D-structured carbon substrates. Enhanced capacities per foot print area are demonstrated for a number of 3D electrode materials, namely polyaniline on reticulated vitreous carbon, Cu2O on copper nanorods and TiO2 on Al nanorods. The crucial points for achieving a thin conformal coating of the corresponding 3D electrode structures with solid polymer electrolytes are also carefully analysed and discussed. In this context electro-polymerisation is proposed as a viable route to form thin electrolyte layers with promising characteristics. The high versatility of electro-polymerisation in combination with the various structures and methodologies adopted here represents a further step towards the development of cost-effective 3D microbattery devices.

Electrochemical fabrication and characterization of Cu/Cu2O multi-layered micro and nanorods in Li-ion batteries

Electrodes composed of freestanding nano- and microrods composed of stacked layers of copper and cuprous oxide have been fabricated using a straightforward one-step template-assisted pulsed galvanostatic electrodeposition approach. The approach provided precise control of the thickness of each individual layer of the high-aspect-ratio rods as was verified by SEM, EDS, XRD, TEM and EELS measurements. Rods with diameters of 80, 200 and 1000 nm were deposited and the influence of the template pore size on the structure and electrochemical performance of the conversion reaction based electrodes in lithium-ion batteries was investigated. The multi-layered Cu2O/Cu nano- and microrod electrodes exhibited a potential window of more than 2 V, which was ascribed to the presence of a distribution of Cu2O (and Cu, respectively) nanoparticles with different sizes and redox potentials. As approximately the same areal capacity was obtained independent of the diameter of the multi-layered rods the results demonstrate the presence of an electroactive Cu2O layer with a thickness defined by the time domain of the measurements. It is also demonstrated that while the areal capacity of the electrodes decreased dramatically when the scan rate was increased from 0.1 to 2 mV s(-1), the capacity remained practically constant when the scan rate was further increased to 100 mV s(-1). This behaviour can be explained by assuming that the capacity is limited by the lithium ion diffusion rate though the Cu2O layer generated during the oxidation step. The electrochemical performance of present type of 3-D multi-layered rods provides new insights into the lithiation and delithiation reactions taking place for conversion reaction materials such as Cu2O.

Toward Solid-State 3D-Microbatteries Using Functionalized Polycarbonate-Based Polymer Electrolytes

3D microbatteries (3D-MBs) impose new demands for the selection, fabrication, and compatibility of the different battery components. Herein, solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) based on poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) have been implemented in 3D-MB systems. 3D electrodes of two different architectures, LiFePO4-coated carbon foams and Cu2O-coated Cu nanopillars, have been coated with SPEs and used in Li cells. Functionalized PTMC with hydroxyl end groups was found to enable uniform and well-covering coatings on LiFePO4-coated carbon foams, which was difficult to achieve for nonfunctionalized polymers, but the cell cycling performance was limited. By employing a SPE prepared from a copolymer of TMC and caprolactone (CL), with higher ionic conductivity, Li cells composed of Cu2O-coated Cu nanopillars were constructed and tested both at ambient temperature and 60 °C. The footprint areal capacity of the cells was ca. 0.02 mAh cm-2 for an area gain factor (AF) of 2.5, and 0.2 mAh cm-2 for a relatively dense nanopillar-array (AF = 25) at a current density of 0.008 mA cm-2 under ambient temperature (22 ± 1 °C). These results provide new routes toward the realization of all-solid-state 3D-MBs.

Corrosion properties of CVD grown Ti(C,N) coatings in 3.5 wt-% NaCl environment

ABSTRACT The corrosion behaviour of Titanium carbonitride (Ti(C,N)) films grown by chemical vapour deposition was analysed in artificial sea water environment. From potentiodynamic polarisation curves, two passivation zones were detected, which originated from an initial oxidation of TiC and TiN to TiO2 followed by growth of the TiO2 layer upon increased polarisation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses verified the mechanism by detecting a gradual decrease in Ti(C,N) peaks accompanied by a gradual increase of oxidised Ti (e.g. TiO2). It was likewise found that carbon in TiC mainly decomposes into carbonate species while the nitrogen in TiN remains elemental and likely escapes as nitrogen gas. Accordingly, Ti(C,N) behaves like a superposition of TiC and TiN with their individual oxidation behaviour, resulting in a highly corrosion resistant material. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT